Glossary
Firmographics
Firmographics are descriptive attributes of a company, such as industry, employee count, annual revenue, location, ownership type and age, that B2B teams use to segment markets, define an ideal customer profile and build target account lists.
What Is Firmographics?
In short Firmographics are to companies what demographics are to people.
Common fields are industry (often coded with NAICS or SIC), headcount, revenue, headquarters and office locations, legal structure (public, private or nonprofit), founding year and growth rate. Related categories are technographics, the tools a company uses, and intent or signal data, what it is doing right now.
They are the first filter in almost every B2B list. An ideal customer profile like 'US logistics companies with 200 to 1,000 employees' is a firmographic definition, and it drives territory planning, ad targeting and outbound lists.
Firmographics Example
Example: a payroll provider defines its market as US construction companies (NAICS sector 23) with 50 to 500 employees. In this example that firmographic filter returns 9,000 companies, which the team splits by state across 4 reps.
Firmographics in Practice
Firmographics go stale. Headcount and revenue change, and companies move or get acquired, so teams re-check them before a campaign. They also only say who could buy; adding signals like hiring or funding says who might buy now.
FAQ
What is the difference between firmographics and demographics?
Demographics describe people (age, role, location). Firmographics describe companies (industry, size, revenue, location). B2B teams use both: firmographics pick the accounts, demographics and job data pick the people.
What are examples of firmographic data?
Industry code, employee count, annual revenue, headquarters country and city, number of locations, public or private ownership, founding year and growth rate.
What is the difference between firmographics and technographics?
Firmographics describe what a company is, such as its industry and size. Technographics describe the software and technology it uses, such as its CRM or cloud provider.
What is the difference between NAICS and SIC codes?
Both classify companies by industry. NAICS, made effective in the US in 1997, is the standard federal statistical agencies use and has up to six digits. SIC is the older four-digit system, first completed in 1939, that NAICS replaced.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Ken Search filters 24M companies by firmographics such as industry, company size and location. Searching is free, and you spend 1 credit only for each valid email you get.
- Module
- Ken Search
- Open in Ken
- /features
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
- GTM Glossary
Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- Technographics
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Data enrichment
- Intent data
- TAM SAM SOM
- Ken features
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| US Census Bureau: Understanding NAICS | |
| US Bureau of Labor Statistics: What is NAICS | |
| US Census Bureau: Classifying businesses (history of SIC and NAICS) |
Changelog
- Page published.